Tag Archives: US tax

FATCA: The Death of the American Economy

I’ve never heard of Adam Bilzerian or The Bilzerian Report, but this guy understands FATCA:  The Death of the American Economy.

Mr. Bilzerian predicts

On January 1, 2013, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) will go into effect, thereby causing the greatest exodus of capital from the American economy in history.

He gives numbers from Washington Post to support his position:

Richard Rahn of the Washington Post writes that FATCA will risk causing the exodus of up to $14 trillion dollars of capital from the American market and could cost well over 10,000,000 jobs.

Mr. Bilzerian also understands problems faced by countries such as Canada where #FATCA violates laws:

This puts the banks in these jurisdictions in the precarious position of deciding whether to abandon the US jurisdiction altogether or break the law in their home country.

So, Mr. Bilzerian asks what is the benefit:

Surely the benefits of this legislation must be significant to warrant such tremendous risk, right? The answer of course is no, because as with most things coming out of Washington these days, logic and rationality have no bearing on the decision-making process. So while the government officials responsible for FATCA estimate that the legislation will bring in about $800 million in additional revenue per year, almost all relevant experts estimate that FATCA stands to cost American taxpayers billions. The implementation alone will require hundreds, if not thousands, of new IRS agents, with the administrative capacity to match. Then there is the private sector, which will have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars re-organizing their entire operations just to comply with the legislation.

Finally, Mr. Bilzerian concludes:

With lunacy like this becoming commonplace in Washington, is it any wonder why wealthy Americans are renouncing their citizenships in record-breaking numbers?

He doesn’t mention it is not only wealthy Americans. It is middle class Americans just trying to live a normal life outside of US.
Unfortunately, Mr. Bilzerian does not seem to write for the mainstream media and no one in Washington is interested in listening.